"Top notch work, Starforge," Trim Finish said. He made another circle around the carriage chassis, which took up much of the floor in Starforge's workshop, admiring it. "Exactly what Holly asked for." He pressed down on one of the suspension's springs, then released the tension on it. "Maybe better than she asked for."
"You said she asked for the best," Starforge said simply. His lips curled back in a self-assured smirk. "That's exactly what I'm giving you." He held the smirk for just a moment, looking at Trim, then laughed pleasantly. He patted Trim on the back with his hoof, then rested it there and pointed his other hoof at him. "Now it's all up to you," he said.
"I have everything else ready," Trim replied. "The chassis was the last piece I was missing." He smiled, and walked with Starforge towards the back door of the workshop. The large bay door was already open, letting in a fair amount of light. "I can wheel this back on my own," he said. His horn glowed, and his saddlebag opened. A large bag floated out of the saddlebag, then gently set itself down on the nearby work table. "That should be the last of it," he said.
Starforge helped Trim push the chassis out of the shop, then waved to him before closing the bay door. He knew carriages weren't likely to cause much of a stir, no matter how well-made they were, but Canterlot was a city where everypony knew who all the good craftsponies were. A high-society pony seeing a well-made carriage from a designer none of his peers knew would be certain to ask some questions; Starforge had a feeling he'd be working with Trim again.
The workshop was a lot darker with the door shut. There were lights on the ceiling, of course, but it was a lot easier to judge a metal's temperature when it was darker; mostly the lights were there for night time work, or showing the workshop off.
A quick look up at the clock told Starforge it was already mid afternoon. Certain that he had missed the mailpony, Starforge trotted over to the door and opened it. He turned left to face his mailbox, attached to the wall. Sure enough, its red flag was up. He reached inside and grabbed his mail: a couple of letters. Absentmindedly, he flapped his wings and floated his way back inside while examining the return addresses on the envelopes.
The first letter was from the Artificers Society—probably a query for articles for the quarterly newsletter. He grabbed the bag of bits while examining the second letter. Interestingly enough, it was from somepony in Farrierview. He didn't know the sender though, and that interested him more than anything.
Wanting to read in comfort, Starforge fluttered to the stairs. He placed the letters into his mouth, then landed. Once his hooves were on the floor he tucked the bag of bits under a wing, then walked up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs was a door with a magical lock, just like the kind he had on his workshop's front door. When he touched the door, it sensed that it was him, then unlocked itself. He pushed the door open, and stepped into his living quarters. They were much more well-lit than the workshop downstairs: there were more windows, and they were not so heavily shaded.
Intrigued by the letter from Farrierview, he placed both letters onto his table. He set the bag of bits down beside the mail, and picked the envelope from Farrierview up with his hoof. Musing for just a moment, he opened up the envelope; he pulled out the letter, and set the now-empty envelope aside.
It was a job offer. A part of the town hall clock's mechanism had broken, and they needed a replacement. It was a rush job, and paid rather well. The carriage job with Trim had brought in enough money, but word must have gotten around about Starforge's particular obsession: the main payment for completing the job was ten pounds of Glee. Not only was the Glee valuable, but its status as an uncommon specialty mineral made it hard to find in large amounts. The bits they were offering as extra incentive were nice, but wholly unnecessary to attract his attention.
Starforge placed the letter into his mouth and raced down the stairs. He still had enough time to dig up some details on the piece Farrierview needed at the library, then get it built and catch the last train to Farrierview.
The sound of the train wheels rolling over the tracks was relaxing. Smiling, Starforge lay on his seat. The book he had borrowed from the library had been helpful: he had read over the relevant section a few times during the trip, and knew exactly what he needed to do to safely exchange the new part for the broken one. With the clock stopped as it was, it would be an easy procedure; getting somepony to make a replacement so quickly would have been the town's only challenge—fortunately, they had him.
There were no other ponies in the car, only him. He hadn't seen anypony get on the train at Ponyville, and nopony got on at either of the stops along the way; if there were any ponies in the other cars, they would be riding through from previous towns on the route.
His tools, the borrowed book, and the replacement part all rested on top of his back, in his saddlebags. He had been in quite a rush to look the part up and get it made before the last train for Farrierview left. In fact, there had been no time for him to eat. Still, Farrierview was too far away for him to comfortably fly to with saddlebags on: he wasn't very good at waiting, so the only option available to him was a slight delay to his dinner. With luck, he'd be able to get a sandwich or something on credit before he made the repair.
Starforge lurched forward in his seat as the train began to slow. His head perked up immediately, and looked ahead. Even after all the train rides he had taken in the past couple of years, he could not remember a single time the conductor had been forced to apply as much pressure on the brakes as he had just felt. Carelessness, allowing the train to get too close to the station without beginning to decrease speed, was the only explanation he could think of: if the train was being stopped to avoid an obstacle, it would be stopping even more quickly.
The train engine door up ahead of him was closed, and he couldn't see anything through its window. The view out of the train's side window, however, was much more helpful.
Farrierview Station was pure chaos. The platform was covered with dozens, probably hundreds, of ponies pushing and shoving at one another. It was overflowing, with more ponies pushing up from the back, and Starforge was amazed that despite the chaos nopony had been pushed off of the platform and onto the tracks.
At the train's rate of deceleration, it was clear that it would come to a stop at its normal place on the platform. Starforge left his seat to go stand by the door. He planned to get some answers about what the fuss was, and he wasn't afraid to force his way past a few ponies if they wouldn't stand aside.
As soon as they saw that the train was pulling into the terminal, the ponies towards the back of the crowd applied more pressure; the ponies closest to the train pressed against it even as its wheels carried it the last few feet on the tracks. Starforge's ears drooped: it didn't seem like he would be getting out through the door after all.
The train lurched as it finally came to rest, and the doors shot open. As soon as the train door opened a solid mass of ponies attempted to force its way in. Two mares dove for the doorway at the same time, each shoving the other in her frenzied rush to board. The door frame dug into their flanks as they writhed, trying to fit two ponies through a one-pony door. The crowd behind them pushed, clamoring frantically the entire time.
While the mares fought to reach safety, Starforge was able to look at them and was immediately struck by the overwhelming fear in their eyes. Pure terror. He raced to the window and looked out at the desperate crowd, and saw the same scene being repeated at the other train cars: the enormous crowd of ponies was doing everything it could to escape something.
In a flash his fore hooves hit the window, forcing it open. Starforge turned back to the door briefly and saw that one of the mares had managed to wiggle her way in front of the other. She was just seconds away from making her way into the car, clearing it for dozens of ponies after her; he had just a few seconds more to get out of the car before he was packed in tighter than a chunk of steel between a hammer and an anvil.
Hopping off of the floor with a quick flap of his wings, he found himself able to get his head and chest out of the train; however, his saddlebag snagged against the small window. He turned his head back to the door and saw the mares finally work their way through. The wave of ponies crashed into the door, trying to fill all of the space in the car. With a twist Starforge scraped his saddlebag off, and as he flew from the train car he could hear it land on the floor with a loud THUD.
"What is it?" he called out to the crowd below him. The panicked ponies ignored him, their minds too focused on escape to worry about much else. "What are you so scared of?" The flow of ponies into the train car stopped—the car was full, and the faces of the ponies that made up the mob turned from scared to despondent.
Starforge turned away from them and flew higher up into the air, looking into the town the ponies were so intent on fleeing. Bright orange light danced at its far edge, where the buildings came closest to the distant jungle, breaking the fresh evening darkness. The smell of smoke wafted gently into his nostrils. Starforge's eyes narrowed, his teeth gritted, and his wings cut the air as he flew into town at full speed.
The town rushed by under him as he flew in the direction of the flames. Above him, some pegasi hovered and sat on clouds; they watched the fires burn from a safe distance while all wearing the same fearful, heartbroken expressions. Starforge's heart sank and he turned his eyes to the ground: after seeing them he was sure he needed to be on the lookout for attackers.
Starforge's eyes diligently scanned the streets while he flew closer and closer to the burning fires. More than halfway through town, he finally spotted his marks: two tall, lumbering shapes walking through the streets. They walked upright, keeping their chests puffed out and occasionally thumping them with their fists. By the light of the moon Starforge could make out the long, dull orange hair that covered their entire body.
"The pangutans," Starforge growled. He knew – first-hooved – that the pangutans were violent and territorial enough to do something like this, but having only one eye meant they were very uncomfortable when they could see long distances; the pangutans rarely left the jungle and never left it in large numbers. Whatever they wanted, Starforge didn't care; he leaned forward and started a dive, his wings driving him towards the ground like a hawk swooping down on prey.
His hooves hit the ground in front of the two pangutans with a thunderous CLAP. His quarry staggered backwards, surprised by his sudden appearance and the noise. Quickly regaining their composure, the pangutans both took a single step towards him; the bigger ape focused his eye onto one of Starforge's while the smaller one stood up to his full height, standing head and shoulders above the pony in front of him. Starforge stared back at the cyclops, then stepped a hoof forward himself. The large ape bared his fangs and emitted a low growl, and the small one savagely beat his chest and howled to the night sky. Starforge flared his wings and dug at the ground with his fore hoof, then bared his own teeth to the ape.
The large pangutan rushed forward towards Starforge. The ape balled his hand into a fist and pulled it above his head, then plunged it down towards the pony's head. With all of his strength Starforge dug his hooves into the ground, lunging forward as he flapped his wings to give him more speed. Before the pangutan could land his blow the pony had struck; his forehead rammed into the ape's stomach, and Starforge knocked him down to the ground. As the smaller pangutan jumped in surprise from the sudden assault, Starforge reared back on his hind hooves. Showing no mercy, he brought his fore hooves crashing down on the fallen ape's chest.
The small pangutan stepped forward, swinging a fist at the attacking pony, but Starforge ducked under the blow and turned his back to the ape. Caught recovering from his swing the pangutan was unable to react as Starforge bucked forward and sent his rear hooves pounding into the ape's stomach. The pangutan reeled backwards; he finally found his footing and panted for breath while Starforge stepped towards him at a slow, deliberate pace.
The larger pangutan stood up and said something to the smaller one before breaking out into a run. The smaller pangutan was quick to follow, and together the two sprinted towards the fires as quickly as their legs could carry them.
Not wanting to let them get away, Starforge gave chase. The pounding of his hooves echoed off of the walls of buildings, and drowned out the dull patter of the apes' padded feet as they struck the ground in their desperate retreat. The distance between the chaser and the chased shrank quickly; Starforge was much faster on four legs than either of them on their two. He opened his wings and got ready to pounce.
Pushing against the ground with all four legs at once Starforge leapt at the nearer of the two apes; wanting more speed for the impact he flapped his wings twice. He struck the ape in the shoulders and tackled him to the ground. The ape raised his hands in an attempt to catch himself, but was too slow; his chest hit the ground hard, and Starforge heard the breath being forced from the ape's lungs. The ape was slow to try to get up, winded and hurt as he was. The pony standing on his back made every breath difficult, and his face hurt from hitting the dirt so hard. When he did lift his head up, however, he did not try to rise from the ground but instead started hooting, as if laughing.
Starforge quickly looked up to see five more pangutans carrying bows, perhaps twenty feet in front of him; behind them stood several more of the apes with empty hands. He hesitated, then stepped backwards off of the pangutan, who pushed himself from the ground and hurried behind his fellows.
The pangutans with the bows wore grim expressions on their faces, but the unarmed apes behind them grinned. When the pangutan Starforge had tackled reached the group, one of them threw his arm around the hurt one's neck and started rapidly scraping the knuckles of his balled fist on the hurt one's head. The other unarmed pangutans focused their attention on the confrontation unfolding between their friends and the pony, some hooting with excitement and others jeering at Starforge in their strange monkey language.
Two of the armed pangutans raised their bows—one of them grunted at Starforge, and shooed him away with his right hand. Starforge took one step backwards, eying them warily; he knew that in a fight with them his wings would be vulnerable, but he also knew that the fires would keep burning until the pangutans had left.
Starforge stepped a determined hoof forward towards the pangutans. The ones with their bows lowered quickly raised them, and all of them nocked arrows. The one on the far right said something to the others; they nodded and grunted as he pulled his bowstring back. Starforge looked up above the pangutans, seeing only one safe angle of approach. He drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out through his nose, keeping his jaw clenched shut.
With a sudden burst of movement he threw his wings open and carried himself up into the air. The pangutan loosed his arrow and the others pulled their bowstrings back. Starforge shouted into the night as loudly as he could: "Armor!"
With a flash of magenta light his armor appeared in the air around him: above and below, to the left and to the right, in front and behind. As suddenly as it appeared the armor shot into motion, flying to the pegasus's body; while it moved it gently crackled with bolts of the same magenta energy that it arrived with. His back and belly armor fastened into place, then were joined together by his chest plate. His leg armor moved into place and coupled around each leg, as did the armor reinforcing the muscle of his wings. Finally, his helmet slipped onto his head. Starforge continued his arc through the air towards his prey, no longer another vulnerable pony but a cannonball covered from head to tail in shiny black metal armor.
The arrow's bronze tip bounced harmlessly off of the armor's belly plate. With a second flap of his wings Starforge reached the top of his arc. He folded his wings back against his body so they would be shielded during his return to the ground. The other apes loosed their arrows towards Starforge and the leader nocked another arrow.
The other arrows, flying towards a target making no effort to evade them, all found their marks; each struck the armor with a dull PLUNK and bounced off the same as the first arrow had. The leader pulled his bowstring back. As he swept his head to the side to judge the distance to his target, he realized just how quickly Starforge had closed the gap between them with his leap; he also realized where he was going to land. He lifted his left foot off of the ground and started sweeping it away from his body, trying to quickly get out of the way of the plummeting mass of meat and metal about to hit him, but he was too slow.
Starforge crashed into the ape with full force while he was still unbalanced on one foot. His fore hooves landed on the ape's shoulders, and as the ape fell backwards Starforge's rear hooves landed on his stomach. While Starforge's momentum carried the two back and to the ground, he forced his head forward with as much strength as he could get out of his neck. He jammed the hard metal helmet into the soft tissue of the ape's face. The sudden pain caused the pangutan to reflexively drop his bow and pull his hands up to defend his face from another attack.
The pangutan's shoulders, forced back by Starforge's fore hooves, hit the ground first—the rest of him followed quickly. Starforge didn't wait at all: he immediately leaped off of the ape. As soon as he felt solid ground beneath his hooves, he turned towards the remaining bowmen. One of them managed to let an accurate arrow fly, but like all of the others it found its mark and was harmlessly repelled by the armor. Starforge charged towards the pangutan who had fired the shot and, seeing that the apes had lowered their bows, opened his wings.
Starforge didn't slow down as he approached his target. He swept the pangutans on both sides of his target off of their feet with his wings as he ran past them, then dealt his hammer blow with his helmet. He dug his head into the pangutan's stomach, and heard the breath rush from the ape's mouth as he stopped his charge. His unfortunate target took a step back, then fell onto his rear end.
The last pangutan warrior still standing dropped his bow, but kept his arrow in his hand. He rushed towards Starforge, arms extended and ready to try to grab the pony and bring him down into a dangerous fight on the ground. Seeing the ape barreling towards him Starforge turned away from his attacker and shifted all of his weight onto his fore hooves. He lifted his rear hooves off of the ground, and pulled his legs back.
The ape continued to charge forward, either oblivious to the danger or too brave to care. Starforge let his hooves fly, and they struck the ape in his upper chest. The force of the blow was enhanced by the ape's own movement towards him. Starforge's strike lifted the pangutan off of his feet and threw him backwards; he hit the ground and stirred, holding a hand to his chest and groaning.
The pangutans that had been tripped by Starforge's wings as he ran past them climbed back onto their feet. They first looked to Starforge, who was standing back a short distance away from them, and turned to their friends who had been more badly hurt by the pony. With their heads still turned towards Starforge, watching him warily, they extended their hands to their cohorts still on the ground and helped them to their feet. All five of the apes took several steps backwards, until finally they ran into the unarmed apes who had been standing behind them. The apes in the back had been grinning before the fight, but now their eyes darted among one another; each was afraid to take any sort of action.
All of their bows lay on the ground, too far away to reach safely, and most of their arrows had fallen from their quivers when they were knocked down. When the armor-clad pony in front of them that was the cause of all of this jammed a hoof to the ground and scraped it back, preparing to charge them again, the pangutans turned and ran. Ponies weren't supposed to be aggressive, they were supposed to run when threatened; those few who wanted to fight weren't supposed to want to stay around and be shot with arrows, and they weren't supposed to wear armor either.
The pangutans ran but Starforge couldn't afford to chase after them; he spread his wings and raced into the sky. He flew through the air at his top speed until he reached the nearest, lowest cloud over the town. His momentum carried him a few feet past the cloud before he could stop himself. He turned around as quickly as he could and placed his fore hooves on the cloud, ready to push it.
Starforge turned his head back to the other pegasi, and saw that they were still watching from a safe distance. "Come on!" he shouted back to them. "We have to put the fires out!" Not waiting for them, he immediately turned his head forward and began flapping his wings, pushing himself and the cloud towards the burning buildings.
Behind him the other pegasi snapped to work. Those that had been resting on clouds followed his lead and began pushing them towards the fires, while those that had been hovering descended to the lower clouds that they had judged too close to the archers to be safe to sit on. Every pegasus was trained in how to handle fires, and now that they were safe from the arrow-shooting apes they could do their job.
As soon as he had pushed the cloud to a spot above the nearest building, he pulled his hooves back. It stopped and Starforge let his momentum carry him forward until he was above it. He forced himself down onto the cloud with his wings. Controlled but urgent, he hopped up and down as quickly as he could. Below him, a torrent of water poured onto the burning building.
The cloud drained quickly, and Starforge brought his fore hooves crashing down on it; his hooves first dug into it, then made it disappear in a light puff of fog. After clearing the way for another cloud to be pushed into place, he turned around and flew to get another. On his way up, he passed by another pegasus already rushing another cloud into place over the building.
Turning back around, ready with another cloud, Starforge saw that the makeshift pegasus fire brigade was getting the fires under control. Because the fire had already progressed so far, he expected them to eventually punch holes through the roofs and any elevated floors. After that, the team would flood both buildings.
They had definitely averted a crisis. The ponies would need to do some work on the interior of the buildings, but at least they had been able to act quickly enough to save the structure. While he helped the other pegasi, Starforge's mind wandered; he couldn't get his mind off the pangutans, and why they had tried to run the ponies out of town. Whatever the reason, he wasn't about to let them succeed.
His stay in Farrierview had just gotten longer.